Efforts to grow the state’s beef herd could be set back due to the March wildfires.
Amid a renewed demand for beef nationwide, Nebraska’s ranching industry saw profitability start to trend upward, prompting thoughts of growth in the minds of the state’s ranchers.
That could be difficult in the aftermath of the wildfires that scorched 800,000-plus acres in western and central Nebraska.
Mark McHargue, president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau, said the destruction of grazing land has complicated ranchers’ expansion plans.
“I don’t think there’s any way to get around that this is going to impact the rebuilding of the herd,” he said.
Given the shortage of forage now, McHargue estimates that herd growth could be set back for at least a year, a tough pill to swallow for ranchers who are trying to regrow a herd that’s been sharply decreasing since 2020.
“It’ll probably be impossible to keep every cow and find feed for them for at least a year before this grassland regrows," he said.
He added that a shortage of food could mean too many mouths to feed for ranchers, meaning operations could opt to sell off more cattle than usual, further decreasing the herd’s numbers.
“I think there’ll be some liquidation. Some will go to slaughter and not come back to reproduce.”
The difficulties in growing the herd extend to the next generation. McHargue said that ranchers could be seeing adverse health effects in newborn calves this spring and summer.
“When we get into the warmer months,” he cautioned, “we could see more lung damage than we normally see both on the calves and potentially the cows.”
He said the fires could have psychological impacts on herds as well.
“It’s more disruption than they’re typically used to," McHargue added. "We could see trauma on some of these cattle: some won’t be accepting their calves back, and it’s all going to add up.”
That could lead to ranchers selling off abandoned calves to other operations, further diminishing total cattle numbers in Nebraska.
McHargue said he’s hopeful, though, in the short term. Many ranchers have already begun work sowing seeds for quick-growing grasses, which could produce substantial feed in the short term for the state’s beef cattle.
Even crop growers are pitching in to help.
“People are going to get creative with some of these irrigated acres,” McHargue said.
“You’ll see some acres normally set aside for corn or soybeans get turned to some sort of fast-growing forage or hay, so the cattle can still graze.”
The Nebraska Farm Bureau has also set up a relief fund for those ag producers affected by the wildfires.